


Blue

by bevesy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Chapter Related, Character Death, F/M, Friendship/Love, Love, Older Armin Arlert, Older Eren Yeager, Older Mikasa Ackerman, Series Finale, Sex, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 23:33:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17672246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bevesy/pseuds/bevesy
Summary: Eren and Armin have a year and a half left before they fell under Ymir's Curse - but it is spent watching an unlikely love blossom.





	Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all. I will label this slightly AU because I still need to research the manga, but this is inspired by Chapter 112 when Armin defended Mikasa. I know the pairing will never happen but I just wanted to try something different. Hope you like.

He and Armin had a year and a half left.

Eren had been ready to succumb to Ymir's curse, but night fell on Hallow's Eve and the titan shifter remembered how the evening air drifted in the corridors before he heard thumping.

Armin's door stood an inch open - the heavy thuds accompany Mikasa's soft moans, Armin's deep breathing and the insistent slapping between skin against skin rendered Eren silent. 

He kept walking until he found them on the sheets - Armin spooning Mikasa's tight body, his left hand gripped her left wrist near the headboard and the other squeezing her breasts while they were tongue tied under the golden light of Armin's lamp.

Not once did they sense him standing there, or did they let go. Mikasa lifted her leg slightly, thrusting back - Armin quickened his pace, murmuring something unintelligible against her parted lips.

Eren left the corridor, and did not return to visit Armin like he wanted to.

* * *

Mikasa had a weight lifted off her.

Eren could tell. She walked lightly, she held on to one of Armin's journal often. Eren would spot her reading near the meadows. Mikasa did not smother him like she used to, and she stopped hovering over him during training. 

Everyone saw the change in Mikasa, and grew suspicious that maybe she and Eren became an item. 

“Are you two dating?” Eren remembered Connie asking.

“No,” he replied.

Eren kept ignoring more of the rumors until the start of the last year he and Armin had arrived, and the dining hall at Survey Corps Headquarters brought a month's worth of meat in one dinner. 

Armin came up by Mikasa, and leaned over her shoulder.

“I bought you something,” Armin said amidst soldiers talking. Then he took it out of his pocket.

Gold gleamed, and a blue pendant twinkled back. 

Eren remembered how he held his breath, and a soldier, who sat near Mikasa looked up over the rim of his ale. Mikasa took off her red scarf. Armin's slender hands put the necklace around her neck, kissing his cheek. 

They murmured for short moments, unaware of the eyes on them. Armin put the red scarf back around the necklace and lips hovered over Mikasa's as she said, “Thank you, Armin.”

Eren drank the rest of his ale and stood in his seat before Armin and Mikasa drew close. 

He caught a glimpse.

They kissed like rain fell outside a warm room, and the sun shining over the meadows. They kissed like the world would fall.

He left the room while everyone clapped at the news of the relationship, and did not turn back.

* * *

“I'm sorry about not telling you earlier.”

Eren knew Armin wanted to speak to him, and did not encourage Mikasa to come along with him. He watched Armin enter his room, and scowled at the wings of freedom on Armin's coat. 

“It's fine,” Eren said, looking away. He slept in too late today, and Armin had been knocking for over three minutes before Eren woke up. “You and Mikasa should be free to do whatever you choose.”

Armin's eyes glinted. “We are, and thank you, Eren.”

Eren waited a few moments. Armin still had that red tint on his nose, and his slender frame slouch awkwardly. His blue eyes looked away and his cheeks reddened. 

The older Armin was still like the younger, but Eren saw the dark circles under his eyes and the calluses on his hands. Armin had a boldness when it came to Mikasa, and Mikasa gave him the lead. 

“We both have a year left. What happens to Mikasa after you leave?”

Eren could tell it disturbed Armin. The blond kept his gaze away, but he scratched the back of his shorter hair. “We didn't give it that much thought - it just felt like it needed to happen.”

“So you both decided screwing around was a good option because it felt natural,”

Armin blinked, then took a look at Eren. 

The shy look on his face dissipated, and what replaced the young boy he and Mikasa always saved in Shiganshina, was someone else. 

Armin's intelligence terrified Eren. At times, Eren could see his mind working at a rate faster than he could imagine - and today was no exception.

“Trost.”

“What?” Eren asked.

“It was at Trost when I wanted...” Armin faltered, but regained control. “I wanted what she gave you.”

The room stilled, and Armin still kept watching him. 

“When we thought you were gone, she wasted her gas and fell in an alley because she grieved by fighting. I came down after you showed up, and wanted her to leave me behind. She refused - that's how I knew what it could feel like to have someone like that love you. She loved you - and overtime, I began to hate the fact that she always was more concerned for you than any of us.”

Eren shifted. “She loved you as well-”

“Not like you,” Armin said, “...but I didn't think much of it over the years until now.”

The first titan shifter let his mind drift back to the fight they all had. Mikasa's face ridden with tears, and Armin still fighting even when he could not win against Eren.

Eren almost wanted to ask Armin if he could live knowing Mikasa did not love Armin the way she did with him. 

But Mikasa's smiling against Armins lips in the bedroom broke through. Lifting her thighs up, kissing Armin. 

“What changed?”

Armin frowned. “Nothing. That's what I realized. How I felt never changed, it was always there - that's why I'm not letting her go until I'm gone.”

They remained there for a few moments. Armin stood up and left the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. 

As the sounds of his boots faded, Eren understood what he meant.

_You pushed her away, so I'm keeping her close._

* * *

He and Armin had six months left.

Mikasa tucked a strand behind her ear when Eren asked if she loved Armin. 

The quiet look on her face tells it all. Her confusion over his question read back. 

“I do,” she said. Mikasa did not lie.

Somewhere along the way, he lost Mikasa - and she found Armin. Once Armin latched on to her, everything became sealed. Even if Eren wanted to try, it just would not work.

They stood by the stables. She held onto the bowl with the grains she had to feed to the horse nearby. “Eren - Armin and I will still be there for you.”

“It's not like before.”

“It can be,” she said. “I have months left with the both of you, and I don't want us to fight again.”

Eren shook his head. “No. I'm happy for you.”

Mikasa radiates the goodness he's always seen in her. On the battlefield, she was a killing machine. But back home, she was a simple countryside girl, and the love of Armin's life.

That same day, he overheard light murmurs.

The kitchens remained bare. Mikasa stood in the middle, before Armin went down on one knee.

Mikasa fell to her knees to cry.

Armin kept whispering sweet words to her ears as she sobbed in his arms. She pulled back to say yes.

Mikasa kept repeating yes in between their kisses until her _'yes's_ became deep sighs, drowning under Armin's 'I love you's '.

They did not tell anyone about the engagement.

Eren overhead Hange mention that she helped Armin and Mikasa sign the marriage certificate.

* * *

He and Armin had a month left, but the final war took Armin first.

He died forcing his squad to leave him behind. Mikasa was never there - she was trapped on the other side of Shiganshina in another battle.

Eren told her before the others.

Mikasa froze, but simply nodded and turned away.

One the early morning before they had to set out, Eren recalled the quiet before the battle. 

Since his room was adjacent to Armins, he found himself listening to their conversation.

Mikasa said something along the lines of _‘two months’_ ,

Armin laughed, “Really?”

“Yes,”

More whispers, soft sighs and lips exchanging - then the word 'safe’ slipped from Armin's lips.

Mikasa had whispered something back before they fell back into kissing again.

Armin's funeral brought all the Survey Corps together, and he was put to rest. The Colossal Titan was given to a new recruit at the last minute in the throes of battle. This new recruit was with Armin in his last moments.

“He told me to settle his finances,” Captain Levi said to him. “The Survey Corps have a retirement fund, he passed it onto Mikasa.”

Mikasa did not cry in front of anyone, but over the days close to when Eren would pass on the Attack Titan, he would study her sitting by herself with the red scarf around her nose and mouth. 

Her hand stayed under that scarf.

Eren knew she was touching the gold necklace instead of the fabric. Mikasa already cried when no one knew, and that was fine with him. 

On the meadows, four days before he would pass on, he walked over to sit next to her.

Mikasa looked heavier than usual, but Eren did not comment. He liked her this way. Relaxed, prepared and ready.

She sent him a small smile and commented on how blue the skies were.

* * *


End file.
